Blog Flos Carmeli English Version: Feast of Oulr Lady of Mount Carmel - Campos

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Feast of Oulr Lady of Mount Carmel - Campos - RJ Brazil

Article by Rev. Bishop D. Fernando Rifan

Apostolic Administrator and Third Order Member

Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmel. This has been an ancient devotion in the Church, especially spread out with the use of the Brown Scapular in her honor.

Near the border with Lebanon, the Mount Carmel, stands up 600 meters above the sea level and it is located in the land of Israel. "Carmen" in Hebrew, means "vine" and "El" means "Lord", where Carmelo means the Lord's vineyard. The prophet Elijah took refuge there, He was the one performed great miracles there, and then his successor, Elisha. They gathered on Mount Carmel with his disciples and they lived in hermitages. In the small cloud that produced rain after the great drought, Elijah saw symbolically Mary, the mother of the expected Messiah. Therefore, Mary was prophetically venerated by these hermits and after the coming of Christ, by his Christian successors, as Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

In the twelfth century, the muslims conquered the Holy Land and began to persecute the Christians, among them the hermits of Mount Carmel, many of whom fled to Europe. In the year 1241, the Baron de Grey of England was returning from the Crusades to the Christian armies, summoned to defend and protect against muslims pilgrims of the Holy Places, and brought a group of religious of Mount Carmel, giving them a home in the village Aylesford. Joined them a hermit named Simon Stock, English illustrious family of the county of Kent. So distinguished in the religious life, the Carmelites elected as Superior General of the Order, which had spread throughout Europe.

On July 16, 1251, in the convent of Cambridge in England, the saint man earnestly prayed to so that Our Lady gave him a sign of her maternal affection towards the Carmelite Order, for her beloved, but then very persecuted. The Blessed Virgin heard the fervent prayers of St. Simon Stock, giving him as proof of Her affection and love for that Order, the Brown Scapular as protective vestment, making sound the well known and comforting promise: "Receive, my son, this scapular of thy Order, which is the earnest of the privilege that I reached for you and all the children of Carmel. Whoever dies with this Scapular shall be preserved from eternal fire. It is therefore a sign of salvation, a defense in danger and pledge of my special protection. "

Pope Pius XII, in a letter to all Carmelites, on February 11, 1950, wrote that among the manifestations of devotion to the Blessed Virgin "should put the devotion of the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the first place, for its simplicity , to everyone, and the abundant fruits of holiness, is widely disseminated among the Christian faithful. "But does a warning about its effectiveness, so it is not used as superstition: "The holy Scapular, as Marian vestment, is a pledge and a sign of God's protection; but do not judge those who use power to achieve eternal life, abandoning himself to indolence and spiritual laziness. "

* Bishop of the Personal Apostolic Administration of St. John Vianney
http://domfernandorifan.blogspot.com.br/

542 Article II - OUR LADY OF CARMO.doc

home page : www.flordocarmelo.org

Traditional Third Order Carmelites

Campos - RJ - Brazil

Affiliated to Apostolic Administration

St. John Mary Vianney -

Extraordinary Form of Latin Mass

Pastor : Dom Fernando Rifan

Spiritual Director : Fr. Everaldo Bon Robert

Official Website : www.soucarmelita.com.br

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Prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

“Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel – Be our constant hope. Mary, perfect disciple of the Lord – Make us also faithful to him. Mary, Flower of Carmel – Fill us with your joy. Virgin Mary, Beauty of Carmel – Smile upon your family Sweet Mother of Carmel – Accept me as your child. Holy, Mother beyond compare – Remember your children forever. Holy Virgin, Star of the Sea – Be our beacon of Light. Protecting Veil – Shelter us in the mantle of your love. Mary, conceived without sin – pray for us who have recourse to you.”

Prayer to Saint John Mary Vianney for the Religious Vocations

Almighty and merciful God, who didst make Saint John Marie Vianney admirable in his pastoral zeal and in his constant love of penance, grant us the grace, we implore Thee, to win for Christ, by his example and intercession, the souls of our brethren, and to attain with them everlasting glory—O, Saint John Marie Vianney, incomparable laborer in the field confided to thee, obtain for the Church the realization of Jesus’ desire. The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few. Pray to the Master of the harvest to send faithful laborers into His vineyard. O, Saint John Marie Vianney ! Intercede for the clergy. May thy patronage, and thy prayer multiply the real vocations to the priesthood. May the Holy Ghost grant thee emulators; may He give us Saints! Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

SEVERAL TIMES we have suggested that the reader might be surprised at the great emphasis given to a devotion as apparently simple as the Brown Scapular. But one of the most interesting testimonies to the importance of the Scapular devotion today has so far been scarcely mentioned. In the pages of an ancient history of the Carmelite Order (written in mediaeval Latin by a forgotten writer named Ventimiglia) the author of this book found the following account: Three famous men of God met on a street corner in Rome. They were Friar Dominic, busy gathering recruits to a new Religious Order of Preachers; Brother Francis, the friend of birds and beasts and especially dear to the poor; and Angelus, who had been invited to Rome from Mount Carmel, in Palestine, because of his fame as a preacher. At their chance meeting, by the light of the Holy Spirit each of the three men recognized each other and, in the course of their conversation (as recorded by various followers who were present), they made prophecies to each other. Saint Angelus foretold the stigmata of Saint Francis, and Saint Dominic said: "One day, Brother Angelus, to your Order of Carmel the Most Blessed Virgin Mary will give a devotion to be known as the Brown Scapular, and to my Order of Preachers she will give a devotion to be known as the Rosary. AND ONE DAY, THROUGH THE ROSARY AND THE SCAPULAR, SHE WILL SAVE THE WORLD." Since he was gathering material for a book on the Scapular Devotion, the present writer was deeply impressed on finding this story in Ventimiglia's History . . . and he was especially impressed by the prophecy of St. Dominic. Yet that prophecy appears nowhere in the past sixteen chapters which (with the exception of Chapter Fifteen and a few paragraphs referring to Fatima) were for thirteen years the total of this book . . . unchanged through several printings totaling more than 70,000 copies. St. Dominic's "prophecy" was omitted repeatedly, through all those printings and years, despite the fact that the author came later to know that today a Chapel, on that very street comer in Rome, commemorates the meeting of St. Dominic, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Angelus as described by Ventimiglia. Therefore, why the omission? Why were not the words "Through the Rosary and the Scapular She will save the world" (Taken from the Book The Sign of Her Heart by John M. Haffert)